Recently, I sat down with a group of global executives visiting Shenzhen. They wanted to understand China Speed. I told them that was the wrong question. The real question wasn’t what China Speed is. It was why it exists, and what it means for how their own organization needs to operate.
That conversation reflects how most overseas businesses approach China. They focus on big concepts like culture, China Speed, and the Chinese way of doing things. And they frame the gap as something to study or overcome, not something to operate inside.
But framing it that way turns a practical business problem into something that feels permanently out of reach.
The Misdiagnosis: Culture Can’t Be Solved
Framing China business challenges purely in terms of culture turns what should be practical business problems into near-insurmountable dead ends. Here are a few examples:
Culture is too opaque: Chinese culture consists of thousands of years of history. Even locals and experts don’t know it all. There’s no time for businesses to learn everything in ways that meaningfully impact short-term business timelines.
Culture is too foreign: Chinese business culture often feels like the complete opposite of how overseas businesses feel comfortable operating, and it’s often framed as either the right way or the wrong way. It’s therefore no surprise that many overseas businesses have alternated between pushing a “global” playbook in the Chinese market or handing everything over to local teams and hoping for the best.
Culture is too personal: Culture doesn’t sound like anything that can be part of a global or local business strategy. It’s therefore not surprising to see the “Chinese Business Culture Problem” pawned off on individual business leaders or managers. And learning about Chinese culture online is no way to solve business problems in the here and now.
So if “culture” isn’t the answer to solving China’s business challenges, what is?
The starting point is understanding that Chinese companies aren’t doing things differently because of who they are. They’re doing things differently because of the environment they’re operating in, and their choices are rational.
The Reframe: It’s Operational Logic
During the conversation with the overseas executives in Shenzhen, I reframed the culture argument this way: “Chinese companies don’t move fast because of their culture. They move fast because their competitive environment exerts specific pressures, which force Chinese companies to make specific, rational operational choices to compete and survive.”
That’s not to say that culture plays no role. The difference is that culture helps to understand China, but it does not help drive shorter-term business decisions.
Chinese companies, teams, and professionals usually have very logical reasons for acting the way they do, whether it be the most practical way to make money, staving off competitors, maintaining internal unity or teamwork, or protecting one’s career.
Here’s how I’ve seen the Chinese operational logic play out:
CEOs pivot fast and kill what isn’t working. I’ve seen Chinese CEOs pivot carefully planned marketing campaigns in less than two days when a competitor moved early. There was no discussion, no alignment meeting, no cross-functional sign-off. From the outside that looks chaotic. From the inside, it was completely rational: The window was closing, and waiting for consensus would have meant missing it entirely.
Companies run parallel teams deliberately. I’ve seen Chinese tech companies use parallel teams not just to move faster, but to raise internal standards. Two teams working simultaneously on the same problem, both knowing the other exists. No announcement, no explanation. A second team simply appeared. Everyone understood what it meant. The standard had been raised without a single difficult conversation.
Even small businesses operate this way. And I’ve seen a single-person gelato shop in Shenzhen create over 200 flavors in two years (roughly two new flavors every week) specifically designed for the local palate. Not as a marketing strategy. As a direct response to a consumer standing in front of her asking what’s new. If one person with no budget operates this way, consider what a well-resourced local competitor can do at scale.
All of these actions look and feel strange or wrong from the outside. But they make sense on the inside. Viewing them as culture doesn’t help overseas companies change or adapt. Viewing them as rational operational choices within the Chinese context does.
The Complication: Adaptation Has a Ceiling
Culture can’t be changed or adapted to. Not really. And not by organizations. Many global organizations may have China teams made up of highly-skilled Chinese professionals. But they’re still reporting to overseas HQs that use overseas logic and cultural norms. And while they are Chinese, they are still operating within a foreign system.
Overseas companies also have more considerations, stakeholders, and rules than many of their Chinese competitors do. They have to consider how their actions may be perceived by people across many countries and cultures. Many local competitors just have to think about one.
That’s one reason why “just follow local culture” or “let a local China team or partner handle everything” rarely works out. If you completely separate a local China operation or partner from your own business logic and needs, they’ll only make decisions about what makes sense in a purely Chinese context, without regard to how it might affect your global business.
A core question overseas business leaders should ask is: Are you actually trying to fix operational challenges for China, or simply push the adoption of global operational methods in China? One helps you operate effectively in China. The other is pushing a system that makes you feel comfortable but may not work in the local context.
The question isn’t how to copy the model. It’s understanding the operational logic well enough to find what actually works within your constraints.
The Implication for Western Leaders
The signals on the ground are usually already there. Local Chinese team members will already know what is going wrong. And local partners will already understand how the competitive landscape works.
The challenge is when those signals can’t be heard. I remember an agency pitch from several years ago, where my team briefed an overseas executive based in China on new local shopping trends and how they were changing retail in China.
His response? “That’s not the way we do things here.”
When operational signals and local needs are coming through loud and clear, but overseas businesses are either unable to hear them or unwilling to act on them, the culture framing just becomes another reason to dismiss what the market is already telling you.
The question isn’t whether your China team or partner understands the market. It’s whether your organization is designed to listen to them
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If you or your organization is navigating China execution or cross-border alignment challenges, I work with teams on an embedded and remote basis. Reach out directly: Sean@SageSightConsulting.com
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